This week in 1961

“[I’m] truly sorry for the heartaches I’ve caused.”

— Robert Lee Goldsby, convicted of murder, gas chamber, Mississippi.
Executed May 31, 1961

After nineteen appeals, two trials, and several rescheduled execution dates over seven years, Goldsby faced the gas chamber for the murder of Mozelle McCorkle Nelms. Goldsby shot Nelms at the café service station run by her husband, after a fight broke out. The night before his execution, he told a reporter: “I know I am going to a better place. I’m positive I’ve been saved by Jesus Christ.”